Private life and
Private life and family problems True to his reputation as unruly, wild and extravagant eccentricities Vandenbroucke starred in numerous outside of racing in his later years. Engaged in 1999 with their first partner, Clothilde Menu, with whom she had a daughter, Cameron, in February of that year, Vandenbroucke met a year later which was eventually his wife, model Sarah Pinacci, with whom, after matching for the Tour of Spain 1999, where he was serving as hostess Pinacci Saeco team, married on 22 October 2000. Both went to live in Lebbeke, near Brussels, the beginning of a relationship full of ups and downs and not just mutual coexistence, despite having a daughter together, named Margaux, the deal between the two ended in July 2006 . In the midst of an argument, Vandenbroucke fired into the roof of his house with a shotgun, after which Pinacci fact filed for divorce and threatened to leave, taking their daughter.Jean-Jacques, Vandenbroucke’s father, said his son had tried to scare Pinacci by telephone, simulating a suspected suicide after which the couple called police and showed up at his house, prompting the discussion. In 1999, Vandenbroucke had been hospitalized because of depression, after the suspension it imposed on his team. Three years later, in 2002, Vandenbroucke was twice deprived of his driving license after testing positive in two alcohol tests, the second of which yielded a rate of 1.8 grams of alcohol per liter of blood. A year later, Vandenbroucke made repeated public appearances in which he appeared to be using drugs.In 2006, after being fired from his team, Unibet.com, was presented at a race fan from northern Italy with a false license, which was the name of Francesco del Ponte-Italianization of his own name – and a photo of Belgian cyclist Tom Boonen. Vandenbroucke was discovered and expelled when, according to witnesses, one kilometer from the finish and outstanding marching ahead, turned, literally, with the intention of going home . A year later, on 6 June 2007, Vandenbroucke was rushed to hospital with poisoning by ingestion of drugs. According to his team’s sporting director, Lorenzo di Lorenzo, Vandenbroucke had attempted suicide, a fact denied by him a day later. However, the statements of his psychologist, Jef Brouwers, confirmed the suicide attempt of the rider, originally attributed to the knee injury had kept him inactive since the winter of 2006, preventing, participate in the Giro d’Italia.Vandenbroucke admitted, days later, they actually had tried to commit suicide, partly because of his continuing problems sports, but also by his desperate family situation with a marriage in the process of separation and away from his daughters. All this is Frank’s own story in his autobiography published in April 2008.